NEFAI 2022 Curriculum

Journalists from a variety of media and all six New England states will gather Oct. 23-25 at Northeastern University in Boston to learn the latest investigative and database reporting techniques and public records access skills. The fellows chosen for this 12th annual New England First Amendment Institute reflect today’s diverse news media and come from daily and weekly newspapers, television and radio stations and online publications. Learn more about NEFAI 2022.

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LOCAL FOI WORKSHOPS

Local FOI workshops will be scheduled prior to meeting at Northeastern University of Oct. 23. These workshops will address each state’s respective public records and open meeting laws. Fellows are expected to attend and discuss specific access challenges they are experiencing.

INTRODUCTION TO R – PREP SESSION

Fellows will have the option of attending either Basic Database Analysis or Introduction to R during the Institute. Those choosing Introduction to R must attend a 90-minute prep session prior to the Institute.

October 21 | 9 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. | Remote (Contact Justin for Zoom Info)

Maggie Mulvihill | Boston University

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OCTOBER 23

2:00 Registration [Curry Student Center – Room 333]

2:45 – 4:00 Keynote Speaker [Curry Student Center – Room 333]

Sewell Chan | The Texas Tribune

Introduction: Karen Bordeleau | Arizona State University

4:00 – 4:15 Break

4:15 – 6:00 Panel: Tales from the Trenches [Curry Student Center – Room 333]

Panelists will share their practical experience in investigative work through painstaking interviewing and use of freedom of information laws to unearth corruption and bring truth to light.

Lauren Chooljian | New Hampshire Public Radio
Matt Rocheleau | Hearst Connecticut Media Group
Eric Tucker | Associated Press

Moderator: Karen Bordeleau | Arizona State University

Discussion Materials:

• FBI Behind Mysterious Surveillance Aircraft Over U.S. Cities
• He Built N.H.’s Largest Addiction Treatment Network. Now, He Faces Accusations of Sexual Misconduct
• Blind Spot: Dangerous Drivers Should Have Lost Their Licenses. They Didn’t — And Other Died
• How a Trooper’s Alleged Racist Remark Ignited the State Police Overtime Scandal
• Prisons Chief Said Order Halting Guards’ Discipline Was News to Her. E-mails Say Otherwise

7:00 Dinner and Networking [Tuscan Kitchen, 64 Seaport Boulevard, Boston]

NEFAC will provide transportation from the hotel to the restaurant at 6:45 p.m. and from the restaurant to the hotel at 9:30 p.m.

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OCTOBER 24

8:15 – 8:30 Announcements [Curry Student Center – Room 333]

8:30 – 9:30 Common Pitfalls in Accessing Documents Through FOI Requests and How to Respond [Curry Student Center – Room 333]

Callie Ferguson | Bangor Daily News
Andrew Ryan | The Boston Globe
Todd Wallack | WBUR-Boston

Moderator: Mike Stanton | University of Connecticut

Discussion Materials:

• Walsh Places New Police Commissioner on Leave After Past Domestic Violence Allegation Surfaces
• Walsh Administration Refuses to Release Internal Affairs Files of Embattled Police Commissioner
• City Release Scathing Review of Police Commissioner; Files Injunction to Stop His Removal
• For Years, the Boston Police Kept a Secret: The Union President Was an Alleged Child Molester
• Commissioner Was Notified of Alleged Molestation By Officer, But Patrolman Was Returned to Duty
• Mayor Wu, Under Pressure, Releases More BPD Records From Former Police Union Leader
• A Database of 10 Years of Boston Police Disciplinary Action
• Lawmen Off Limits
• The Sheriff Fired Him. Then the Police Chief Fired Him. Each Time He Kept His License as a Cop
• Misconduct Concealed Series
• Maine State Police Releases Unredacted Discipline Records After Newspaper Lawsuit
• Maine State Police Withheld Trooper Discipline Records, Lawsuit Reveals
• Judges Call Out Illegal Maine State Police Tactics That Get Cases Tossed
• How a Mass. Law Intended to Protect Victims Became a ‘Gift to Abusers’
• For Some State Police, It’s a Posting in a Paradise
• Inside Our Secret Courts
• Gladiator: A Room of His Own

9:30 – 9:45 Break

9:45 – 11:15 Web Scraping [Curry Student Center – Room 333]

Maggie Mulvihill | Boston University

Required: (1) View Web Scraping 101 and Web Scraping 102 (2) Confirm access to Google Sheets (3) Download Tabula and PDFtoExcel (both free) prior to the class.

Data Sources: (1) Maine Drugs 2018 (2) OPR Discipline Report March 2022 (3) Opioid Deaths Mass. 2020

Presentations: (1) Web Scraping 101 (2) Extracting Data From PDFs

11:15 – 11:30 Break

11:30 – 1:15 Beat Break-Out Sessions

CLIMATE [Curry Student Center – McLeod 1]

Beth Daley | The Conversation

Presentation: Beat Break-Out Climate

Resources and Follow-Up Links:

• EPA: Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO)
• National Library of Medicine: PubMed.gov
• EPA: Superfund Site Search
• EPA: Superfund Sites – New Hampshire
• EPA: Superfund Sites – Rhode Island
• EPA: Superfund Sites – Vermont
• FEMA: Flood Insurance Data and Analytics
• EurekAlert!
• Society of Environmental Journalists
• NIH: Airborne PCBs and OH-PCBs Inside and Outside Urban and Rural U.S. Schools
• New Hampshire State Climate Office
• Vermont State Climate Office
• Rhode Island State Climate Office

EDUCATION [Curry Student Center – McLeod 2]

Jacqueline Rabe Thomas | Hearst Connecticut Media Group

Required Viewing: FERPA and Public Records

DEMOCRACY AND ELECTIONS [Curry Student Center – Room 342]

Geoff Foster | Common Cause Massachusetts

HEALTH  [Curry Student Center – Room 344]

Felice Freyer | The Boston Globe

Required Viewing: HIPAA and Public Records

Resources and Follow-Up Links:

• Association of Health Care Journalists
• Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association
• Massachusetts School Immunization Data
• HIPAA: AHCJ Resource Page
• HIPAA: RCFP Resource Page
• HIPAA: Federal Government
• When a Patient’s Death is Broadcast Without Permission
• HIPAA’s Use as a Code of Silence
• Food Insecurity and Health Outcomes
• The Effect of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program on Mortality
• Additional Food Insecurity Background
• Academic Sources on Food Insecurity: Craig Gundersen and James Ziliak
• Eli Saslow Reporting on Food Stamps for The Washington Post

TRAUMA JOURNALISM [Curry Student Center – Room 346]

Jenifer McKim | GBH News Center for Investigative Reporting

Required Viewing: Interviewing Traumatized Sources

Discussion Materials:

• Why Some Journalists Are Centering Trauma-Informed Reporting
• Melba Audio
• Melba Photo
• SPJ Code of Ethics
• Presentation Slides

12:15 Lunch [Served in Curry Student Center – Room 333]

1:15 – 1:30 Break

1:30 – 3:00 Tips for Staying Out of Legal Trouble [Curry Student Center – Room 333]

Gregory V. Sullivan | Malloy & Sullivan

Required Viewing: (1) How to Respond to a Subpoena (2) How to Avoid Libel in Your Reporting (3) How to Balance Newsgathering with Privacy

3:00 – 3:15 Break

3:15 – 4:15 Former Fellows Panel [Curry Student Center – Room 333]

Anastasia Lennon | New Bedford Light
Brad Petrishen | Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Tiffany Tan | VTDigger

Moderator: Edward Fitzpatrick | The Boston Globe

Discussion Materials:

• Clerk Hears Testimony, to Decide on Criminal Charges Against New Bedford City Councilor Dunn
• Clerk Magistrate Keeps Hovan Hearing Private, Calling It a ‘Personal Matter’
• Massachusetts Trial Court, Show Cause Hearing Decisions Data
• NEFAC ‘Show Cause’ Hearings Resource Page
• Justice on State’s Highest Court Will Grant The Light’s Request to Halt Hovan Hearing
• Hovan Hearing Halted; SJC Justice Weighs Appeal for Public Access
• SJC Justice Denies The Light’s Appeal to Open Keith Hovan Hearing
• Tennessee Waltz: Does the Bennington County Sheriff Still Live in Vermont?

5:15 – 8:30 (or later) Dinner and Presentation [The Westin Copley, 10 Huntington Avenue, Boston]

5:45 – 6:45 Keynote Speaker

Sacha Pfeiffer | NPR

NEFAC’s Shirley Leung, a reporter at The Boston Globe, will be leading a conversation with Sacha about her career, bringing stories to life through audio and how fellows can incorporate different media into their own reporting.

Introductions: Edward Fitzpatrick | The Boston Globe

6:15 Dinner

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OCTOBER 25

8:15 – 8:30 Announcements [Curry Student Center – Room 333]

8:30 – 10:00 Panel: Effective Sourcing [Curry Student Center – Room 333]

When your FOI request languishes your reporting continues. Developing sources, relationships, knowing how to evaluate what you get.

Vanessa de la Torre | New England News Collaborative
Cindy Galli | ABC News
Phillip Martin | GBH News Center for Investigative Reporting

Moderator: Maggie Mulvihill | Boston University

10:00 – 10:15 Break

10:15 – 12:15 Database Analysis Break-Out Sessions

Using database technology to analyze publicly available or FOI-request-won data to understand societal, financial, and economic trends is an important tool for the seasoned reporter. 

Suggested Viewing: (1) Data Cleaning 101 (2) Data Cleaning 102 (3) Data Visualization 101

BASIC DATABASE ANALYSIS [Curry Student Center – Room 346]

Brooke Williams | Boston University

Required Viewing: (1) Class Introduction and Database Basics

INTRODUCTION TO R [Curry Student Center – Room 344]

Maggie Mulvihill | Boston University

Required: (1) Attend Introduction to R Prep Session Prior to Institute. (2) Install Base R and R Studio prior to class (3) Review Introduction to R and Getting to Know the R Environment (4) Download “babynames” (.xlsx / .csv) and “Intro to R with Baby Names Data – Student Version“

12:15 – 1:45 Lunch [Curry Student Center – McLeod Suites]

12:45 Keynote Speaker

Mark Walker | The New York Times, IRE

1:45 – 2:30 Photo/Break [Location TBD]

2:30 – 3:30 Media Break-Out Sessions

CONFRONTATIONAL INTERVIEWS AND TRANSITION TO A/V [Curry Student Center – Room 346]

Tim White | WPRI-Providence

WRITING WORKSHOP AND NARRATIVE FLOW [Curry Student Center – Room 344]

Jeff Howe | Northeastern University

3:30 – 3:45 Concluding Remarks [Curry Student Center – Room 333]

Justin Silverman | New England First Amendment Coalition